Keko tailgate seal with spray in bed liner?

[Flak]

So I got half way through the install, getting the side gaskets in without a problem. The issue is now the tailgate bottom. My truck has factory spray in, and I would have gotten aftermarket anyway.

The issue is, and maybe this is a raptor tailgate panel difference, a 2025 difference or something else, but the bottom of the tailgate in the install video has a 1/4+ inch exposed metal strip on the flat (inside) side along the bottom to adhere the three pieces of gasket. Spray in covers this area, so there is nothing to adhere it to (seemingly). The install video is too zoomed out to be 100% sure but it seems like you want the bottom gasket to adhere to the bottom and hang, in plane, with the interior panel of the tailgate, which makes sense. It also seems like the install example truck has a plastic bed liner panel rather than spray in. I gather the whole back of the tailgate would be metal with plain factory tailgate.

Has anyone done this before or done it differently? Probably going to reach out to Keko after the weekend, but maybe I'm just being dumb or it's supposed to attach differently than I'm seeing in the video/manual.

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[D. Sampson]

So I got half way through the install, getting the side gaskets in without a problem. The issue is now the tailgate bottom. My truck has factory spray in, and I would have gotten aftermarket anyway.

The issue is, and maybe this is a raptor tailgate panel difference, a 2025 difference or something else, but the bottom of the tailgate in the install video has a 1/4+ inch exposed metal strip on the flat (inside) side along the bottom to adhere the three pieces of gasket. Spray in covers this area, so there is nothing to adhere it to (seemingly). The install video is too zoomed out to be 100% sure but it seems like you want the bottom gasket to adhere to the bottom and hang, in plane, with the interior panel of the tailgate, which makes sense. It also seems like the install example truck has a plastic bed liner panel rather than spray in. I gather the whole back of the tailgate would be metal with plain factory tailgate.

Has anyone done this before or done it differently? Probably going to reach out to Keko after the weekend, but maybe I'm just being dumb or it's supposed to attach differently than I'm seeing in the video/manual.

Hey there - when I installed the Keko, I just glued the tailgate seal to the spray in liner. I cleaned the area well with 90% alcohol, and used their adhesive promoter. It's has stuck well.

When I initially did the install, I ran out of adhesive promoter. I asked for more, and Keko sent me a whole new tailgate seal kit and just charged me shipping. I still haven't had to replace it yet though.

 

[John B]

I used the keko side pieces, but had to trim the length since my bed cover rail was in its path, plus I had to cut a small flap about one inch down due to a pertrusion (as I recall, just a screw head). Seems to work well (con'd in next post)

 

[John B]

I didn't like the concept of gluing the supplied keko bottom seal to the top (when it's lowered) of the tailgate, since it would be in the way when I'm dragging heavy stuff out of the bed, and would have a very low predicted life expectancy. After experimenting with various small pieces of seal materials in a few different location, I settled on a large length of d ring (came with 3m tape) that I attached to the upper back side of the tailgate. It's sounds funky, but it works well at contacting the back surface of the bed. Buy lots of extra d ring seal to experiment until you are happy with the match/contact. You can't use this type of seal over the hinge areas since that part of the tailgate actually narrows away from the tailgate. I just got a few blocks of heavy foam and cut to fit, so the block lightly contacted the edge of the bed when closed (warning, the 2 hinges had a bit difference clearance when closed, so cut the block foam accordingly. I used liberal amounts of adhesion promoter, and glued to the top surface of the hinge (use your own thin 3m double stick red tape). I've had poor luck with the little package of a soaked application pad (either not enough or dried out) so I just bought a 2 bottle supply since I use this stuff frequently. The promoter and seal materials were dirt cheap on amazon fwiw. Although my bed is dirty (never cleaned it from trips prior to doing this) I can see that very little dust etc is coming thru the tailgate, and the seal material is holding up well. It is important to verify seal locations and thickness before you finalize, since I suspect tailgate spacing varies a bit from truck to truck.

 

[John B]

And another fwiw. This general type of seal will never be 100% effective at keeping out dust, but I would guess its at about the 95 % mark at least at keeping out dust, as well as water sprayed directly at tailgate (like carwash, etc). After I seal the 6 (3 per side) side stake covers, I'll consider this a completed project.

 

[Flak]

Thanks for the feedback. Yea my bed doesn't need to be hermetically sealed or anything, I just want the ability to take cargo through rain without worrying about it. Mostly there, I think.

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